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auswegian · 11-14-2003, 06:51 AM

Quote:

MPs misled public over boat people
November 14, 2003

TWO Government ministers have been caught misleading the public about whether 14 Kurdish boat people had claimed asylum last week.

The boat people pictured off Melville Island last week, while they were still in Australian waters.
A government task force revealed yesterday the men told navy and Federal Police officers they were oppressed Kurdish refugees from Turkey and wanted to go to Australia.

Two navy ships towed their boat to Indonesia last weekend before their asylum claims could be considered.

On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone issued a joint press release asserting the men did not claim asylum and Mr Downer repeated it this week.

But, like the children overboard affair, the official story has unravelled. The Kurds, now in a Jakarta detention centre, insisted they did claim asylum. Prime Minister John Howard has defended his ministers, saying that whether the men on board had applied for asylum or not was irrelevant.

The key point was that the policy of deterring illegal arrivals was acted on and the message was sent to the world that boat people could not get access to Australia's legal system, he said.

"The key thing here is that, at the time the so-called application for asylum might have been made, the islands had been excised (from Australia's migration zone).

"That is why the act of excision was so important and that is why the Labor Party's opposition to excising those islands means that the Labor Party is against our policy of deterring illegal arrivals."

The people smuggling task force chairman, senior immigration official Ed Killesteyn, said yesterday the ministers' original statement was wrong. But Mr Killesteyn, in a letter to Senator Vanstone, said it had no bearing on the way the vessel was handled.

He said the men did not make a valid protection application because Melville Island had been retrospectively excised from the migration zone, hours after their November 4 arrival.

Mr Killesteyn said the men claimed to be Kurdish refugees, and one pointed to the word "refugee" in a dictionary. Another said: "We are from Turkey, don't want to go back, no good. We want to go to Australia."

Later, when their boat, the Minasa Bone, was in international waters, six of the men were interviewed about why they had come to Australia. Answers included "to become an Australian citizen".

"The statement that no asylum claims were made was inserted by the PSTF (people smuggling task force) on the basis of information available at the time," Mr Killesteyn said. .

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Yet more disgusting behaviour by the Australian government. This is quickly reaching the level of farce, this country's once good international reputation is being constantly smeared by this idiotic government. They've taken this charade far too far. It's a disgrace.

How many thousand islands did they excise on a whim to get rid of these big bad refugees? Its pathetic that the government resorts to these sort of dodgy dealings over just 14 men who probably just want a job and a safe place to live. And we've pissed off the Indonesians to no end. No wonder we Aussies keep getting the cold shoulder from ASEAN. Hmph.